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RE: AW: Missing Exit Signs
John Jacobus and Franz Schoenhofer wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: Franz Schoenhofer [mailto:franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT]
Sent: Tue 3/16/2004 5:35 AM
To: John Jacobus; Bernard L. Cohen; Carol Marcus
Cc: jjcohen; Williamson, Matthew/Medical Physics; Radsafe
Subject: AW: AW: Missing Exit Signs
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: John Jacobus [mailto:crispy_bird@yahoo.com]
Gesendet: Montag, 15. März 2004 19:03
An: Franz Schoenhofer; Bernard L. Cohen; Carol Marcus
Cc: jjcohen; Williamson, Matthew/Medical Physics; Radsafe
Betreff: Re: AW: Missing Exit Signs
Franz,
I am not familiar with the story of someone dying from
inhaling tritium gas. Was is due to the radiation, or
due to asphyxiation, i.e., lack of oxygen?
The latter thought would certainly tighten my vocal
cords.
--------------------------------------
John,
I came across this about ten years ago, when I did a lot of work on the
transfer of tritium from the tritiated polystyrene in watches with tritium
luminous dials to the human body. The research was initiated after much
enhanced tritium body burdens were found for people who carried a certain
well known brand of a Swiss company, which used plastic casings.
I have the original source somewhere in my tons of unsorted papers which I
took home after my retirement, so I cannot retrieve it now. But I remember
very well, that this was a note in a paper or report on the impact of
tritium. I remember as well, that I could not check the original report,
maybe because the source journal or report was not available to me. The
source was from a scientific paper and not from TFP....
Maybe somebody else knows more?
I do not believe that asphyxiation could be the cause, because closing in
somebody into a small chamber and filling the chamber with tritium gas would
not only be murder, but would be expensive...... (Excuse my cynism.)
Best regards,
Franz
=================
An insteresting timeline for radiation science and history, including radiation accidents can be found at:
www.roadtechs.com/rpchron.htm
It includes:
1961 Switzerland a tritium exposure of three individuals up to 300 rem leads to one fatality.
1964 Federal Republic of Germany, overexposure of four to tritium, doses up to 1000 rad, 1 death
I was aware that there had been one occupational death, but not of a second.
Because the biological half life of tritium is only about 10 days, it is very difficult to get a significant dose from an acute exposure. On the other hand, a small fraction of inhaled/ingested tritium will become bound in body hydrocarbons and have a much longer biological half life. Therefore, chronic occupational exposure can lead to a situation in which a significant fraction of the body's hydrogen in hydrocarbons has been replaced by tritium.
Like Franz, I too have a paper, citing at least one of the above occupational fatalities, lost in my archives.
Best regards.
Jim Dukelow
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA
jim.dukelow@pnl.gov
These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.
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